Magnetic water conditioning devices have been used as early as the 1950s (Vermeiren U.S. Pat. No. 2,652,925) for conditioning water in an effort to prevent scale build up and minimize the damaging effects of hard water on pipes. Municipal water supplies and other commonly available water sources often contain a variety of mineral components including, calcium carbonate and other mineral compounds which can precipitate out of solution and aggregate to form scales on pipe walls thereby restricting flow and causing corrosive damage. Mineral aggregation on a pipe wall can provide a matrix for the accumulation of algae and other organisms which can further damage pipes due to biologic corrosion. The molecular chemistry of these processes is often complex and not always well understood as myriad variables, such as water borne chemicals and biologic constituents, may vary considerably depending on location and the specific application.
However, it is generally recognized that when an aqueous media, such as municipal water, passes through a magnetic field electric currents and charges are induced that affect free ions in the water (Patterson U.S. Pat. No. 6,171,504). Placing a negative electric charge on the conduit or pipe (Clair U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,623) repels particulates and ions suspended in the water which also tend to be negatively charged—referred to as “pipe charging” (1-15). This process prevents mineral aggregation on the conduit walls via a number of electro-chemical mechanisms including encouraging the formation of microscopic crystallization nuclei leading to the seeding of minerals which are then unavailable for aggregation on vessel walls (Kronenberg, Experimental Evidence for the Effects of Magnetic Fields on Moving Water) and (Schoepe U.S. Pat. No. 5,378,362 5-25). Early approaches to magnetic water conditioning did find limited success, but have since given way to more studied approaches and sophisticated devices that have gained wider acceptance not only for domestic water conditioning, but for numerous industrial applications, such as the prevention of mineral incrustation of large boilers. More recently, applications for magnetic fluid conditioning devices have extended to gasses and other liquids, such as hydrocarbon oils and fuels. For example, magnetic conditioners are now employed widely in the oil industry as a lower cost alternative to harsh and toxic chemicals used to mitigate paraffin buildup in oil pumps and oil pipes and managing the corrosion by-product of heavily mineralized water that is often present in oil production (Guo et al).
Magnetic conditioning devices are also used for treating fuel oil for heating plants and are marketed for treating gasoline and diesel fuel for which application they are reported to increase fuel efficiency and reduce the exhaust emissions in internal combustion engines and other hydrocarbon burning devices. The magnetic treatment devices are positioned either internal to a fuel conduit or externally mounted on a fuel conduit. A wide variety of designs have been employed to treat liquid hydrocarbon fuels that purport to ionize, de-clump, or unfold hydrocarbon chains and reduce fuel viscosity thereby affording a greater surface fuel area and greater number of molecular oxidation sites improving combustion efficiency and lowering particulate emissions and noxious gas emissions (Fujita U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,296). Sacs (EP1587761 A1) and Twardzic (U.S. Pat. No. 5,558,765) teach the mechanism of “spinflip” in which valence electrons in atoms as part of larger molecular structures, will absorb a precise amount of electromagnetic energy and realign (flip) in the direction of an imposed magnetic field and will seek equilibrium by assuming a new configuration within the molecule. This is held to produce an unclumping of hydrocarbon molecules and an unfolding and separation of the hydrocarbon molecular chains. Tao (US 2012/0228205) reported a direct correlation between the magnetic treatment of hydrocarbon fuel and a reduction in fuel viscosity. Guo et al also noted a decrease in viscosity and also a reduction in hydrocarbon surface tension after the application of a magnetic field. Similarly, Fujita (U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,296) states that hydrocarbons passing through magnetic flux reorient and shift their structure, considerably weakening or depressing van der Waal forces, helping to disperse hydrocarbon molecules. Van der Waal forces are the net attractive and repulsive intermolecular forces. Fujita further demonstrates fuel treatment optimization for his device by showing magnetic flux strength versus post combustion particulate emissions and mono-nitrogen oxides (NOx) content of the exhaust gas. It is interesting to note that Fujita's data shows Gaussian strength sweet spots for fuel treatment optimization in the range of from 1600 to 2300 Gauss for his device. This strongly suggests that there are preferential magnetic strength “windows” that supply the “right” level of magnetic energy stimulus necessary to alter the hydrocarbon molecule configuration for a given fuel and fuel transport parameter. According to R. Kita reporting in Infinite Energy Issue 83 January/February 2009, in referring to Fujita's data in the magnetic treatment of hydrocarbon fuels (U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,296); “What is not understood by many is that the effect is non-linear, which means that too high a magnetic field results in a diminished effect . . . it seems like the series of waves relate that a quantum effect is occurring. Many times in science proportionality is assumed, and in this case the effect is non-linear and discrete levels of gauss must be used to achieve positive results.”
It is evident from the foregoing discussion that there is a multiplicity of electric and magnetic mechanisms at work in treating different fluids with a magnetic field, requiring the application of the appropriate level of magnetic stimulus. In more electrically conductive fluids, particularly aqueous fluids, electric currents induced by magnetic fields play a larger roll in modifying the fluid transporting environment and in ionizing various particles, minerals and promoting the seeding of mineral crystals. Whereas in fuels, such as hydrocarbons, different changes occur on an atomic and molecular level. The magnetic treatment of these fluids is optimized with the application of an appropriate level of quantum stimulus energy i.e., magnetic field intensity and magnetic vector.
Clair (U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,916) teaches that an optimal water conditioning effect is achieved when fluid passes through a magnetic field that is orthogonal to the flow of said fluid which comports with Faraday's Law. The resulting induced electrical current imposes a negative charge on a pipe wall which repels mineral ions and other particles that also tend to be negatively charged. In the water conditioning industry this is referred to as “pipe charging”. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,623 Clair employs a plurality of 12,000 Gauss neodymium iron boron permanent magnets and flux concentrator pieces arranged circumferentially about a fluid conduit. The magnetic poles alternate so that a N pole is always adjacent to a S pole ensuring that the magnetic flux passes through the fluid conduit or pipe entirely orthogonal (2-5) to the fluid flow in order to impart the maximum electric charge to a conduit or pipe to prevent corrosion, scaling, algae or other forms of aggregation on a pipe wall. The apparatus produces a magnetic field that is exclusively orthogonal to treated fluid. It is a complex assembly comprising many parts and adding significant bulk to the fluid conduit.
Prior art in Riera (U.S. Pat. No. 7,445,694) shows that when treating hydrocarbon fuels, it is useful to subject the fluid flow to multiple, dynamic magnetic field vectors to induce stereochemical molecular deformation. This results in shifting a hydrocarbon fuel's outer valence electrons to a higher energy state, thereby imposing polarizing electric and magnetic forces on the molecule's structure which tends to unfold and straighten out the hydrocarbon molecule chains exposing many more oxidation sites for increased combustion efficiency. Riera uses a complex arrangement of electromagnets and permanent magnets and driver electronics, which subjects the fuel to a plethora of magnetic field vectors varying in strength, direction and frequency in order to provide stimulus energies for inducing molecular deformation The Riera apparatus is complex requiring expensive electronic driver circuitry and electronic frequency source for the electromagnets which may prohibit its use for most simpler applications such as fuel conditioning for a passenger car or conditioning a domestic water supply.
Still another approach to magnetically treat fluid such as hydrocarbon fuels and water is shown by Glass (U.S. Pat. No. 6,056,872). It employs like pole, juxtaposing permanent magnets i.e., S-S or N-N, arranged axially along a fluid conduit which the inventor claims to produce predominantly orthogonal lines of magnetic flux lines that pass through the fluid conduit. However, in Figures of the '872 patent magnetic flux lines bend away from the juxtaposed like, S pole magnet faces at curved angles (2-45) and do not to appear to be orthogonal. A major deficiency in employing juxtaposed, like pole magnets in this manner is that it produces areas devoid of magnetic flux by mutual repulsion wherein fluid in these areas remains untreated. In an attempt to remedy this problem, (3-25) juxtaposed S only magnet poles each facing into the fluid conduit which are varied in combination of magnet strength and or size and or magnet to magnet spacing in an attempt to offset the spatial position of the flux void produced by each magnet grouping. This would seemingly eliminate a contiguous flux void that would otherwise run the length of the fuel treatment apparatus and allow a significant percentage of the fuel to exit untreated. Glass, in offsetting the flux void areas away from the axis of fuel flow, potentially leaves a significant portion of the fluid treatment area devoid of magnetic flux or flux that is not orthogonal to the flow of fluid as asserted in the patent.
Schoepe (U.S. Pat. No. 5,378,362) offers another approach to the magnetic treatment of fluids wherein two groups of opposite pole, juxtaposed magnet pairs are placed axially on the periphery of the fluid conduit. Each magnet pair within a group is separated by paramagnetic spacers of equal thickness. The spacing between the magnets within the first group has a dimensional relationship with the spacing between the magnets of the second group so that the magnet spacing in the second group exceeds the magnet spacing in the first group by at least 5% of a whole number multiple of the first group. Schoepe refers to this as non-harmonic spacing and asserts that the magnet spacing promotes a stimulating resonant effect acting on the oscillatory nature fluid particles in water. However, any resonant stimulating effect is also dependent on the velocity of the fluid through the conduit and this device only proposes two resonant points which leaves open the possibility of resonances outside the range of the two magnet groups.
Fujita (U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,296) presents a magnetic device for treating fluid fuel in which a plurality of juxtaposed N and S magnet poles are mounted in a magnetically permeable yoke surrounding a fuel conduit. The magnet faces adjacent and orthogonal to the fuel conduit are adjustable to alter the strength of the magnetic flux passing through the fuel, hence giving ability to optimize the efficiency of the fuel treatment. Fujita demonstrated optimal adjustment points, between the maximum and minimum magnetic flux strength.